Launching system for robotic sausage loading machine

ABSTRACT

A system, and associated method, for launching and delivering separated food product in organized groups to a robotized packaging station for the product. The system initiates the delivery via a metered hopper of food product delivering the product to a launch V-belt that aligns the product end to end. A successive singulator belt, positioned adjacent to and receiving product from the launch belt, further organizes the product into a single file alignment. An optional separator belt may follow the singulator belt to create gaps between successive product units. The product is then delivered to a pick belt for product to be provided to the packaging robot. The system product information is from a single (per product delivery line) sensor, enabling intergrated end-to-end control from hopper to robot, and a nearly continuous motion of said pick belt.

CLAIMS OF PRIORITY AND CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/937,323, filed Mar. 27, 2018, No U.S. Pat. No. 10,494,181, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/255,419, filed Sep. 2,2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,926,139, which claims the benefit ofprovisional Application Nos. 62/213,928, filed on Sep. 3, 2015, and62/332,745, filed on May 6, 2016, which are hereby incorporated hereinby reference in their entirety and to which priority is claimed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to launching and loading of foodproducts and, more particularly, to a food product handling system forcontrolled transportation of de-linked tubular food products, such assausages and hot dogs, from a de-linking machine to a picking device forloading organized products into predetermined packages.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Automated food product handling is a well-known industry. This field hasbeen undergoing change as use of robotic and machine vision elementshave been incorporated to accomplish or supplement what were foodhandling tasks previously handled by human line workers. Thesupplementation of robotics and machine vision elements has been used tovarying degrees to improve quality, speed, and yield.

While existing robotic sausage loading machines have proven to be usefulfor various food product launching and loading applications,improvements that may enhance their performance and ease of use, andreduce cost are possible.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided a food product handlingsystem for loading food product, such as sausages and hot dogs. The foodproduct handling system comprises a launching system that prepares aproduct for loading and packaging in a loading machine. The launchingsystem comprises a metering hopper, a launcher with a V-shaped conveyor,a singulator with a very narrow V-shaped conveyor, separating flights, aproduct position sensor, and a pick belt conveyor. The launcher operatesto organize a load of food products and deliver it in a manner that isappropriate for separating and reorganizing the products via subsequentmanipulation of the singulator and separator. The product position issensed as it passes to the pick belt. The signal from the sensor enablesthe system controller to anticipate how to advance the pick belt toreceive product and, accordingly, enables the pick belt to move atnearly continuous rate of movement. This nearly continuous movement ofthe pick belt eases the operation of the robotic loading machinereceiving product from the pick belt.

The system for loading food products further comprises a loading machinereceiving the products from the launching system. In an exemplaryembodiment, the loading machine/station includes a loading robot forstaging the food products into groupings suitable for loading intopackaging.

Other aspects of the invention, including apparatus, devices, systems,processes, and the like which constitute part of the invention, willbecome more apparent upon reading the following detailed description ofthe exemplary embodiments.

The accompanying drawings are incorporated in and constitute a part ofthe specification. The drawings, together with the general descriptiongiven above and the detailed description of the exemplary embodimentsand methods given below, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from a study of the following specification when viewed inlight of the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are given thesame or analogous reference numerals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a combination launching and loadingmachine in accordance with a first exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a launcher system in accordance with the firstexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a pick belt loadingmechanism in accordance with the first exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a graphical illustration of a method to provideconveyor/singulator/picking synchronization;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a combination launching and loadingmachine in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, including twin launchers, a pair of respective singulator andseparator belts, feeding a pair of pick belts;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a metering hopper with first and secondelevated supply conveyors in accordance with the second exemplaryembodiment of the present invention at a first steepened limit ofadjustment; and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the metering hopper with the first andsecond elevated supply conveyors in accordance with the second exemplaryembodiment of the present invention at a second less inclined limit ofadjustment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT(S) AND EMBODIED METHOD(S)OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments andmethods of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, inwhich like reference characters designate like or corresponding partsthroughout the drawings. It should be noted, however, that the inventionin its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details,representative devices and methods, and illustrative examples shown anddescribed in connection with the exemplary embodiments and methods.

This description of exemplary embodiment(s) is intended to be read inconnection with the accompanying drawings, which are to be consideredpart of the entire written description. In the description, relativeterms such as “horizontal,” “vertical,” “up,” “down,” “upper”, “lower”,“right”, “left”, “top” and “bottom” as well as derivatives thereof(e.g., “horizontally,” “downwardly,” “upwardly,” etc.) should beconstrued to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown inthe drawing figure under discussion. These relative terms are forconvenience of description and normally are not intended to require aparticular orientation. Terms concerning attachments, coupling and thelike, such as “connected” and “interconnected,” refer to a relationshipwherein structures are secured or attached to one another eitherdirectly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as bothmovable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expresslydescribed otherwise. The term “operatively connected” is such anattachment, coupling or connection that allows the pertinent structuresto operate as intended by virtue of that relationship. Additionally, thewords “a” and “an” as used in the claims means “at least one”.

FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrates a food product handlingsystem 10 according to a first exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. The food product handling system 10 is configured forhandling de-linked (separated) tubular food products 2, such as sausagesor frankfurters, and is configured as a combination of a launchingsystem 11 and a loading machine 24. The launching system 11 comprises ametering hopper 12 configured to receive a plurality of the de-linkedtubular food products 2, a launcher 14, a singulator 16, a productsensor 18 configured to detect the de-linked tubular food products 2, apick belt conveyor 20, and an excess conveyor 22 to recirculate excesstubular food products tumbling from the singulator 16 back to themetering hopper 12 when the food products 2 do not adequately fit ontothe singulator 16. The entire food product handling system 10 iscontrolled through one or more control panels and one or moreconventional programmable logic controllers (PLCs), such as an AllenBradley Logix 1756-L71.

The metering hopper 12 supplies the launcher 14 with the de-linkedtubular food products 2 using an elevated supply conveyor 13 equippedwith an incline angle adjustment. In the first exemplary embodiment, themetering hopper 12 is positioned above the launcher 14. The launcher 14is configured to transport the randomly and loosely oriented tubularfood products 2 to the singulator 16. The singulator is known in the artas a mechanism for orienting tubular food products 2 in a single-fileline with little or no overlap. An exemplary singulator is the ARBsingulator available from Nercon Engineering & Mfg., Inc. The singulatorseparates the tubular food products, such as sausages, and loads themonto the pick belt conveyor 20.

As is known, many industrial activities require a fixed number ofarticles that are generally fed randomly and are loosely ordered to beautomatically sorted and oriented in a single-file line so that they canthereafter be handled more easily in an automatic or semi-automatic way.The machines carrying out this operation are known as “singulators”. Inother words, the singulator 16 is particularly intended for thesingulation of loose tubular food products, such as de-linked sausages,arranged loosely in a plane, i.e. orienting the de-linked tubular foodproducts in a single-file line, with the products 2 not overlapping orpartially overlapping each other.

FIG. 2 also depicts the launcher 14 and the singulator 16. In the firstexemplary embodiment of the present invention, the tubular food products2 are frankfurters. However, the present invention is not limited to aparticular type of food product, and may include irregular length,curved and caliber products.

The launcher 14 comprises a V-shaped conveyor belt system 15. Thetubular food products 2 drop at a set rate onto the V-shaped conveyorbelt system 15 of the launcher 14. The V-shaped conveyor belt system 15corrals the food products 2 in an aligned manner at the bottom of troughdefined between two parallel V configured conveyor belts 15 ₁ and 15 ₂.The V-shaped launcher 14 is configured to align the tubular foodproducts 2 before transferring them to the singulator 16. The singulator16 comprises a V-shaped conveyor belt system 17. In turn, the V-shapedconveyor belt system 17 includes a pair of conveyor belts 17 ₁ and 17 ₂oriented relative to one another in a V-shaped configuration so as toform a narrow V-shaped configuration between the conveyor belts 17 ₁ and17 ₂ that only allows one unit of the tubular food products 2 to movethrough the conveyor belt system 17 at a time. In other words, atransverse distance between the conveyor belts 17 ₁ and 17 ₂ of thesingulator 16 is substantially smaller than a transverse distancebetween the conveyor belts 15 ₁ and 15 ₂ of the launcher 14. The surplusfood products 2 fall or tumble into a chute 23 and then to the excessconveyor 22 and are returned to the hopper 12. The singulator 16 mayinclude an additional conveyor, a separator, after the narrow V-portionwith a faster surface speed, about twice the speed of the singulator, tocreate a gap between successive food product units.

The singulator 16 orients the tubular food products 2 in the single-fileline, and advances and discharges the tubular food products 2 one-by-oneto the pick belt conveyor 20. The pick belt conveyor 20 includes acontinuous conveyor feed belt 26 provided with closely located carrierwalls 28 oriented transversely to the transport direction 21. Thecarrier walls 28 divide the conveyor feed belt 26 into transversecompartments (or buckets) 30 configured to contain only one food product2 at a time. Each of the carrier walls 28 is configured to contain onlyone of the food products 2, which has dropped down to one of thetransverse compartments 30 of the conveyor feed belt 26 from a feed-end19 _(F) of the singulator 16, in the transport direction 21 for deliveryof the food products 2 to the loading station 24.

The product sensor 18 at the feed-end 19 _(F) of the singulator 16signals the continuous conveyor feed belt 26 of the pick belt conveyor20 to advance (or index) the next available empty compartments 30 on theconveyor feed belt 26 to the position in front of the feed-end 19 _(F)of the singulator 16. By virtue of sensing the product before it arrivesinto a pick belt food compartment, the system controller can“anticipate” the arrival of food product, and cause the pick belt to beincremented to a position to receive a product. By sensing betweenproduct intervals and product delivery rates, the pick belt can mimicnearly continuous movement even though it is simply regularlyincrementing. Owing to the nearly continuous movement of the pick beltconveyor 20, the robotic loader 24 is more easily and reliablycontrolled.

FIG. 3 shows the first exemplary embodiment of the area where theconveyor feed belt 26 is loaded. The tubular food products 2 are loadedon the location conveyor feed belt 26 as it bends around an end turn 27of the conveyor feed belt 26. This creates an ‘extending’ motion betweenthe carrier walls 28, which allows for smoother loading of the tubularfood products 2 into the transverse compartments 30 of the conveyor feedbelt 26. Each of the tubular food products 2 is loaded into one of thebuckets 30 because, as the conveyor feed belt 26 goes around the endturn 27, it “opens” the sidewalls. This allows launching or receiving acurved sausage or the like into the bucket 30 that would not fit if thebucket 30 was in a flat linear position.

The tubular food products 2 are fed to the loading machine 24 by theconveyor feed belt 26 and the tubular food products 2 are staged in thedesired grouping, for example by an index lug chain as disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 8,458,995 incorporated herein by reference. The loading machine24 comprises a robot (not shown) that picks a group of tubular foodproducts 2 using vacuum and moves it toward one of pockets in apackaging machine (not shown). On the way to the pocket, a picking toolactuates and groups the food products 2 into, for example, two groups offour tubular food products 2. Once grouped, the robot places the groupedfood products 2 into corresponding pockets in a packaging machine.

The feeding of the robot with the food products 2 that are orderly,evenly spaced, and in a nearly continuous passing movement solves atleast two problems. First, it eliminates the need for robot vision.Second, it enables one robot to handle multiple food products at once,thereby eliminating the need for multiple robots to obtain thethroughput required.

A method to provide conveyor/singulator/picking synchronization is asfollows:

-   -   Simple indexing of the pick belt conveyor 20 for indexed launch        feed. Pick timing is windowed to allow least disruption for pick        motion.    -   Use of the product sensor 18 upstream of the singulator 16 to        append an appropriate motion on the pick belt conveyor 20 that        will yield smoothest motion (i.e., nearly continuous) and/or        determine best picking moment from the pick belt conveyor 20.

Graphically the above described method is illustrated in FIG. 4.

Normally, the product sensor 18 pulses on and off for each sausage 2that passes by. If for some reason there is no gap between the sausages,then the product sensor 18 will appear to have latched on longer than atypical sausage (food product 2) pulse. When this occurs, the controllerwill detect that the product sensor 18 has been on longer than onesausage passing and will then cause the pick belt conveyor 20 to indexmore than one flight. This will create the necessary flight for theadditional product that passed by the product sensor 18. The number offlights index edge will depend on the length of a sensor pulse. If thelength of the sensor pulse exceeds a maximum, the system 10 isconfigured to stop and handle this condition as a possible jam that canbe cleared out automatically or manually. Moreover, the system 10 issetup to index at a typical rate for the sausages that are detected fromthe product sensor 18. There may be an instance when the sausage ratemay surge higher than a typical rate. When this occurs the productsensor 18 will see a pulse from the product sooner than expected. Inthis case, the response of the system 10 will be similar to that of alatched on condition described above. The pick belt conveyor 20 will beindexed for two flights to account for the extra sausage productdetected.

Various modifications, changes, and alterations may be practiced withthe above-described embodiment, including but not limited to theadditional embodiment shown in FIGS. 5-7. In the interest of brevity,reference characters in FIGS. 5-7 that are discussed above in connectionwith Figs. FIGS. 1-3 are not further elaborated upon below, except tothe extent necessary or useful to explain the additional embodiments ofFIGS. 5-7. Modified components and parts are indicated by the additionof a hundred digits to the reference numerals of the components orparts.

FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings illustrates a food product handlingsystem 110 according to a second exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. The food product handling system 110 is configured forhandling de-linked tubular food products 2, such as sausages orfrankfurters, and is configured as a combination of a launching system111 and a loading machine 124. The launching system 111 comprises ametering hopper 112 configured to receive a plurality of the de-linkedtubular food products 2. The hopper provides organized aligned productto first and second launchers 114 ₁ and 114 ₂, respectively. Thelaunchers 114, in turn, feed aligned product to first and secondsingulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂, respectively. Product sensors 118 ₁ and 118₂, in this embodiment, are positioned above separator belts 119 ₁ and119 ₂, operating at approximately twice singulator belt speed, whichfeed separated product to first and second pick belt conveyors 120 ₁ and120 ₂. An excess conveyor 122 recirculates extra tubular food productsfalling from the first and second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂ back tothe metering hopper 112 when the food products 2 do not adequately fiton the singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂. The entire food product handlingsystem 110 is controlled through one or more control panels and one ormore conventional programmable logic controllers (PLCs), such as anAllen Bradley Logix 1756-L71 according to the previously describedmethod. The distinction for this application is the addition of theseparator belts as the source of product position information in thesystem as supplied by product sensors 118.

The metering hopper 112 supplies the first launcher 114 ₁ with thede-linked tubular food products 2 using a first elevated supply conveyor113 ₁ having an adjustable incline angle, and the second launcher 114 ₂using a second elevated supply conveyor 113 ₂ also having an adjustableincline angle. In the second exemplary embodiment, the metering hopper112 is positioned below the first and second launchers 114 ₁ and 114 ₂.The first and second launchers 114 ₁ and 114 ₂ are configured totransport the randomly and loosely oriented tubular food products 2 tothe first and second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂, respectively. Thesingulator is known in the art as a mechanism for orienting tubular foodproducts 2 in a single-file line with little or no overlap. The firstand second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂ “singulate” the tubular foodproducts, i.e., deliver one-at-a-time, and deliver them onto theseparator belts which each deliver spaced apart product to first andsecond pick belt conveyors 120 ₁ and 120 ₂, respectively.

The metering hopper 112 with the first and second elevated supplyconveyors 113 ₁ and 113 ₂, respectively, in accordance with the secondexemplary embodiment of the present invention at opposite limits of anadjustment are shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The incline of the respectivebelts 113 is controlled by adjustment controller 130. The controller 130is positioned at one end of a rotating shaft suspended side-to-sidebeneath belts 113. The shaft is equipped with cam or eccentric lobeelements which urge against the underside of the lower portion of thebelts 113 and alter each belt, respectively, into steeper or less steepincline(s) dependent on the operator's “tuning” of the incline to aparticular food product shape/size/texture. The goal of the inclineadjustment is such that successive single aligned products, as often aspossible, are retrieved by belts 113 and delivered to the launcher.

Each of the first and second launchers 114 ₁ and 114 ₂ is similar to thelauncher 14 and comprises first V-shaped conveyor belt systems 115 ₁ and115 ₂, respectively, as best shown in FIG. 5. The tubular food products2 drop by the first elevated supply conveyor 113 ₁ at a set rate ontothe first V-shaped conveyor belt system 115 ₁ of the first launcher 114₁, and by the second elevated supply conveyor 113 ₂ at a set rate ontothe second V-shaped conveyor belt system 115 ₂ of the second launcher114 ₂. Each of the first and second V-shaped conveyor belt systems 115 ₁and 115 ₂ corral the food products 2 in an aligned manner at a bottom oftrough defined between two parallel V configured conveyor belts. Each ofthe first and second V-shaped launchers 114 ₁ and 114 ₂ is configured toalign the tubular food products 2 before transferring them to the firstand second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂, respectively. Each of the firstand second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂ is similar to the singulator 16and comprises a V-shaped conveyor belt system. In turn, the V-shapedconveyor belt system includes a pair of conveyor belts oriented relativeto one another in a V-shaped configuration so as to form a narrowV-shaped configuration between the conveyor belts that only allows oneunit of the tubular food products 2 to move through the conveyor beltsystem at a time. The surplus food products 2 fall onto a chute 123 andthen to the excess conveyor 122 and are returned to the hopper 112.

Each of the first and second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂ orients thetubular food products 2 in the single-file line, and advances anddischarges the tubular food products 2 one-by-one to the first andsecond separator 119, and pick belt conveyors 120 ₁ and 120 ₂,respectively, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Each of the first and secondpick belt conveyors 120 ₁ and 120 ₂ is similar to the pick belt conveyor20. As further illustrated in FIG. 5, the first pick belt conveyor 120 ₁includes a first continuous conveyor feed belt 126 ₁ provided withclosely located carrier walls oriented transversely to the transportdirection 21. Similarly, the second pick belt conveyor 120 ₂ includes asecond continuous conveyor feed belt 126 ₂ provided with closely locatedcarrier walls oriented transversely to the transport direction 21. Thecarrier walls divide each of the first and second conveyor feed belts126 ₁ and 126 ₂ into transverse compartments (or buckets) configured tocontain only one food product 2 at a time. Each of the transversecompartments is provided to contain only one of the food products 2,which has dropped down to one of the transverse compartments 30 of eachof the first and second conveyor feed belts 126 ₁ and 126 ₂ from afeed-end of the first and second singulators 116 ₁ and 116 ₂ andcollaborating separator belts 119, respectively, in the transportdirection 21 for delivery of the food products 2 to the loading station124.

The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) of the presentinvention has been presented for the purpose of illustration inaccordance with the provisions of the Patent Statutes. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed. The embodiments disclosed hereinabove were chosen in order tobest illustrate the principles of the present invention and itspractical application to thereby enable those of ordinary skill in theart to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and withvarious modifications as suited to the particular use contemplated, aslong as the principles described herein are followed. This applicationis therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations ofthe invention using its general principles. Further, this application isintended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as comewithin known or customary practice in the art to which this inventionpertains. Thus, changes can be made in the above-described inventionwithout departing from the intent and scope thereof. It is also intendedthat the scope of the present invention be defined by the claimsappended thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A food product handling device for de-linkedtubular food products, the handling device comprising: a metering hopperconfigured to receive and deliver de-linked tubular food products; asingulator for orienting the tubular food products in a single-file linewith little or no overlap, the singulator configured to allow only oneunit of the tubular food products to move through the singulator at atime, the singulator comprising a V-shaped conveyor belt system; alauncher for supplying the randomly and loosely oriented tubular foodproducts from the metering hopper to the singulator; a pick beltconveyor receiving the de-linked tubular food products from thesingulator into respective product compartments positioned along thepick belt conveyor, and transporting the de-linked tubular food productsto a loading machine; and a product sensor positioned to sense productunits of the de-linked tubular food products before the product unitsare delivered to the pick belt conveyor, the product sensor configuredto deliver a signal to a controller for the pick belt conveyor, therebyallowing indexing of the pick belt conveyor product compartments toanticipate the arrival of product units from the singulator and receivethe product units into respective product compartments as the productunits are delivered, the product sensor further configured to deliverthe signal to the controller to operate the pick belt conveyor in anearly continuous motion.
 2. The device as in claim 1, furthercomprising a separator belt positioned between the singulator and thepick belt conveyor, wherein the product sensor is located to sense theproduct units on the separator belt.
 3. The device as in claim 1,further comprising a variable incline supply conveyor located within themetering hopper.
 4. The device as in claim 3, wherein the pick beltconveyor product compartments are configured to be in an extendedcondition for receiving the de-linked tubular food products respectivelydelivered thereto, the extended condition being created by an end turnof the pick belt conveyor.
 5. The device as in claim 2, furthercomprising a variable incline supply conveyor located within themetering hopper.
 6. The device as in claim 1, wherein the V-shapedconveyor belt system includes a pair of conveyor belts oriented relativeto one another in a V-shaped configuration between the pair of conveyorbelts so that only one unit of the tubular food products may movethrough the conveyor belt system at a time.
 7. The device as in claim 1,further comprising an excess conveyor operably associated with thesingulator to recirculate un-oriented de-linked tubular food productsfrom the singulator to the metering hopper.
 8. The device as in claim 1,wherein the product sensor is positioned at a feed end of thesingulator.
 9. A food product handling device for de-linked tubular foodproducts, the handling device comprising: a metering hopper configuredto receive and deliver de-linked tubular food products; a firstsingulator configured to orient a first plurality of de-linked tubularfood products in a first single-file line; a second singulatorconfigured to orient a second plurality of de-linked tubular foodproducts in a second single line; a first launcher configured to supplythe first plurality of de-linked tubular food products from the meteringhopper to the first singulator; a second launcher configured to supplythe second plurality of de-linked tubular food products from themetering hoper to the second singulator; a first pick belt conveyorconfigured to receive the first plurality of de-linked tubular foodproducts from the first singulator into respective first productcompartments positioned along the first pick belt conveyor, one of thede-linked tubular food products per compartment, and transport the firstplurality of de-linked tubular food products to a loading machine; asecond pick belt conveyor configured to receive the second plurality ofde-linked tubular food products from the second singulator intorespective second product compartments positioned along the second pickbelt conveyor, one of the de-linked tubular food products percompartment, and transport the second plurality of de-linked tubularfood products to the loading machine; a first product sensor positionedto sense first product units of the first plurality of de-linked tubularfood products before the first product units are delivered to the firstpick belt conveyor, the first product sensor configured to deliver afirst signal to a controller for the first pick belt conveyor, therebyallowing appropriate indexing of the first pick belt conveyor to receivethe first product units into respective first compartments of the firstproduct compartments as the first product unit is delivered; and asecond product sensor positioned to sense second product units of thesecond plurality of de-linked tubular food products before the secondproduct units are delivered to the second pick belt conveyor, the secondproduct sensor configured to deliver a second signal to a controller forthe second pick belt conveyor, thereby allowing appropriate indexing ofthe second pick belt conveyor to receive the second product units intorespective second compartments of the second product compartments as thesecond product units are delivered; each of the first and secondsingulators comprises a V-shaped conveyor belt system.
 10. The device asin claim 9, wherein the V-shaped conveyor belt system of each of thefirst and second singulators includes a pair of conveyor belts orientedrelative to one another in a V-shaped configuration that only allows oneunit of tubular food products to move through the associated conveyorbelt system at a time.
 11. The device as in claim 9, further comprising:a first separator belt positioned between the first singulator and thefirst pick belt conveyor, the first product sensor being located tosense the first product unit on the first separator belt; and a secondseparator belt positioned between the second singulator and the secondpick belt conveyor, the second product sensor being located to sense thesecond product unit on the second separator belt.
 12. The device as inclaim 9, further comprising first and second variable incline supplyconveyors located within the metering hopper.
 13. The device as in claim9, wherein the first product compartments are configured in a firstextended condition for receiving the first product units deliveredthereto, and wherein the second product compartments are configured in asecond extended condition for receiving the second product unitsdelivered thereto.
 14. The device as in claim 9, wherein the firstproduct sensor and the second product sensor are positioned atrespective feed ends of the first singulator and the second singulator.15. The device as in claim 9, wherein the first and second productsensors further are configured to deliver the signals to the controllersto operate the first and second pick belt conveyors in nearly continuousmotion.
 16. The device as in claim 9, further comprising an excessconveyor configured to recirculate de-linked tubular food products fromthe first and second singulators to the metering hopper.
 17. The deviceas in claim 9, wherein: the first pick belt conveyor comprises firstcarrier walls oriented transversely to a first transport direction ofthe first pick belt conveyor, the first carrier walls dividing the firstpick belt conveyor into the first product compartments; and the secondpick belt conveyor comprises second carrier walls oriented transverselyto a second transport direction of the second pick belt conveyor, thesecond carrier walls dividing the second pick belt conveyor into thesecond product compartments.
 18. The device as in claim 9, furthercomprising: a first elevated supply conveyor configured to supply thefirst plurality of de-linked tubular food products from the meteringhopper to the first launcher; and a second elevated supply conveyorconfigured to supply the second plurality of de-lined tubular foodproducts from the metering hopper to the second launcher.